Hardware vs Software

Difference Between Hardware vs Software

In this topic, we are discussing differences between Hardware vs software of Computers. Before discussing the difference Between both let discuss something about what both stands for in computer world.

Computer hardware is any physical device i.e. available or used in (external detachable devices) or with the system, whereas software is a collection of code that needs to be installed into the system.

For example, the computer’s monitor that we are using to read this text is an output device and the mouse that we used to navigate this web page or to scroll or to click is an input device and both are computer’s hardware.

The Internet browser that we installed in our system which allows us to browse through the webpage/websites, as well as the operating system on which the browser is running on, is considered software.

All software required at least one hardware device to operate.

For example, we all have played some kind of computer games, which is software, uses the computer hardware like the processor (CPU), memory (RAM), hard drive, video card, sound device and other hardware devices to run and also to interact with the users.

We also have used word processing software installed in the computer which processor, memory, hard drive, mouse, keyboard to create and save our documents.

In the computer world, the hardware is something that makes the computer work. The CPU (central processing unit) processes the information and that information can be stored in RAM (volatile memory) or on a hard drive (nonvolatile memory). A sound card is responsible for processing the sound which could be heard from the speakers (sound devices), the video card is responsible for image and videos displayed in the monitor. All of this is hardware.

The same system required software can be installed and allow a person to interact with the hardware and sometimes it is also necessary for the hardware’s to communicate internally with other hardware devices in the same system or outside the system.

An operating system, like Windows, Ubuntu, MacOS, is software. It provides a graphical interface for people to use the computer and a platform for other software to run on the computer. Operating systems once installed then only any additional programs could be installed that allows the user to perform more specialized tasks.

Technically in computer systems, we can divide software into three major categories:

System software.

Programming software.

Application software.

Although this bifurcation is arbitrary. The software is typically programmed so that the user could interact with the systems easily.

Similarly, Hardware is best described as a device, such as a hard disk, that is physically connected to the system or something that can be physically touched. Monitor, printer, video card are all examples of computer hardware. A computer failed to function without any hardware or software would have nothing to run on.

Both are dependent on each other and interact with one another. It is the Software tells Hardware which tasks it needs to perform.

Head To Head Comparison Between Hardware vs Software (Infographics)

Key Difference between Hardware vs Software

Both Hardware vs Software are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major Difference Between Hardware vs Software:

Hardware’s are the tangible devices that are installed/assembled in the computer systems which do a particular task based on the instruction given to them. Software’s are the intangible part which is installed on the systems having the hardware. The software’s are the one which is interactive i.e. user accessible and the user could give instructions need to be done, thus the software pass the same to the hardware in the machine under stable language and the hardware do the task

Both are interdependent on each other.

Hardware’s cannot perform the task without software. Similarly, the software could not perform and complete the task without hardware.

Faults can occur on hardware and there could be many reasons behind the fault. However, faults in software are almost negligible but bugs can arise in the software with time.

Hardware wears out with time Software’s does not wear out with time.

Hardware only understands machine level language. The software takes input in human-readable languages which it interprets to machine level language and passes it to hardware to get things done.

Hardware vs Software Comparison Table

Let’s look at the top Comparison between Hardware vs Software –

The basis of comparison Between Hardware vs Software

Hardware

Software

Definition

Physical devices that are required to store, execute (run) the software.

The software is a collection of instructions that let the user interact with the hardware and command it to do a particular task.

Types

Processing, Input, Output, Control, Storage, External

System, Application, Programming

Function

It is used to do the task at the machine level

It is used to give instruction what kind of work the hardware should do based on the hardware types.

Dependency

Hardware is dependent on software. It starts functions once the software is loaded.

The software is also somehow dependent on hardware because the software provides the instructions to hardware to do a particular task so without hardware software cannot complete the task.

Faults

Failure of hardware is random.

Software failure could have many reasons may be due to systematic error, major-minor version error etc.

Durability

Hardware wears out with time.

The software is durable and is not wear out but with time bugs may arise in the software which could be rectified.

Conclusion – Hardware vs Software

After discussion on what is hardware and what is software we now can conclude our discussion with the facts that both play an important role in computer systems.

Both are dependent on each other and thus neither Software, not the Hardware could alone serve the purpose of doing the task.

We had also come across about the fault tolerance nature of both that where the faults can occur.

We had also covered the point how durable it could be and we find that hardware’s wear and tear with times but software’s are durable however bugs may arise due to many reasons and it can be fixed.

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